SPRINKLER TALK FORUM - You Got Questions, We've Got Answers

Hi Everyone,


I have a 63yrd x 40yrd recreational field behind my house that I would love to water more efficiently. Currently I use one Nelson Raintrain which waters the field by use of 6 gpm and takes about 8 hrs. I only have about 2 hrs a day to water the field which takes many adjustments of the hose etc... This means it takes me about 4 days to water, which means I need to start rewatering as soon as I'm done!!!


I recently had a 3/4" water meter exchanged for a 1" and placed a T valve just after the meter (6"away). The pipe to the hose was immediatly returned to the 3/4". I opened up the T valve just after the meter and saw it read 10 gallons in 4.6 seconds. Then, later in the day it read 6.4 seconds. This would calculate to 98gpm and 130gpm. The person installing the meter said that the pressure in the neighborhood was 85psi.


My question is, what do I use to transport this water to the back which is 300' away? My initial plan was to place 4 hose connections with valves at one side of the field and run the raintrains across. I believe I have a lot more options with this amount of water and would love to maximize efficiency with regards to the amount of time spent watering. I would also like to keep my playing surface clear of sprinklers which would (I think) elliminate my ability to use the "head to head" design.

Thanks in advance for your help!
Jason

I was thinking of using either 2 1/4, 2 1/2, or even 3" pvc to keep the volume and pressure to the backyard (300+ ft away). From there I wanted to either use multiple raintrains, or other sprinklers that wouldn't be permanent on the playing surface. Will simply using a larger diameter hose decrease the time it takes the raintrain to do it's job? The idea is to minimize the watering time.

Thanks,

Jason

Raintrain = Nelson raintrain or little tractor that uses about 6gpm and waters slowly about a 20' wide piece 100' in an hour. ie too slow http://www.lawnh2o.com/nelson/nelson_rain_train.htm

hope this helps,

Jason

My meter reads 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0 and as it goes from 0 back to 0 it only takes 6.4 seconds. I then was sure that no water was running, then open up a nozle and filled a gallon sized jug which brought the meter from 7.5 to 8.5. The meter also shows "gallons". I've stired about this myself but unless the new meter is reading wrong or I'm somehow calculating wrong it's 98gpm and even 130gpm.

I like the ideas of the sprinklers but they would have to be off the playing surface thus no "head to head" design. I thought about lining the edge of the field with sprinklers then using my little raintrain to catch the middle. This would probablly my best case senario if I could figure out how to best get the water to the back and then equally distributed when it gets there.



The distance of pipe from the meter to the corner of the field is about 250'. I would have to travel 120' to get to the other side of the field and then 190' x2 to get to the far end of the field. That's a lot of pipe!!!

This would be an idea for the pipe layout.